What Independent Grocers Need to Know About Mobile Order Ahead Payments
Mobile order ahead looks simple from the shopper’s side. They build an order on their phone, choose a pickup time, pay, and collect their groceries. Behind that smooth experience is a payment process that is more complicated than a standard register transaction. The customer pays before anyone has picked the order. The final total may […]
What It Takes to Launch Grocery Delivery as an Independent Operator
Grocery delivery is the most requested and most misunderstood extension of online ordering. Shoppers want it. Independent grocers who offer it can reach customers who cannot easily visit the store, increase basket sizes, and build habit-forming convenience. But delivery also converts a retail business into a logistics business overnight, with costs, risks, and operational complexity […]
How to Turn Your Online Ordering Data Into a Competitive Advantage
Every online order tells you who the customer is, what they bought, when they wanted it, how they paid, and whether they accepted your substitutions. In the physical store, much of that information disappears at the register unless the shopper happens to use a loyalty card. Online, nearly all of it is captured automatically and […]
How to Compete With Instacart and DoorDash as an Independent Grocer
Instacart and DoorDash have changed what shoppers expect from grocery. Many customers now open an app before they open a grocery store’s website, and independent grocers who are not present on those apps worry that they are invisible to a growing segment of shoppers. Independent grocers who are present on them often discover a different […]
How Independent Grocers Can Launch Online Ordering Without Disrupting Store Operations
Most independent grocers who hesitate to launch online ordering are not worried about whether customers want it. They are worried about what it will do to the store. Picking orders means pulling staff off the floor. Online orders compete with in-store shoppers for the same inventory. A rush of pickup customers can clog the front […]